I need some help with a household electrical issue that recently popped up. I have a circuit that has recently started tripping the breaker whenever a significant load is applied. It is one of the Eaton breakers with a test button, I believe it is called an arc fault circuit interrupter. The circuit has 4 indoor duplex outlets, 1 interior overhead light, an exterior coach light, and an exterior flood light. The house is a little over 3 years old and I have not experienced any other electrical issues up to this point.
Here is the situation. I can plug a single lamp into any outlet or turn on any single light and the circuit functions normally. However, when I try to run multiple outlets, throw multiple switches, or anything else that pulls a few amps the breaker blows.
I have opened up what I believe is the first outlet in the circuit, checked the incoming hot and neutral connections, and unhooked the outgoing connections to disable the rest of the circuit. The breaker still trips when anything more than a small load is put on it. I figured I would start at the beginning to try to locate the problem area but that didn’t get me very far since the first outlet is appears to be affected.
I am thinking the next step is to swap the breaker out with a known good one to see if it behaves the same. I have never changed a breaker or opened up a panel before so I am a little hesitant to do so. If I go this route I may end up calling an electrician because I don’t want to get fried because I touched something I shouldn’t. Do you guys have any thoughts on what could have caused the circuit to start acting up all of the sudden?
Here is the situation. I can plug a single lamp into any outlet or turn on any single light and the circuit functions normally. However, when I try to run multiple outlets, throw multiple switches, or anything else that pulls a few amps the breaker blows.
I have opened up what I believe is the first outlet in the circuit, checked the incoming hot and neutral connections, and unhooked the outgoing connections to disable the rest of the circuit. The breaker still trips when anything more than a small load is put on it. I figured I would start at the beginning to try to locate the problem area but that didn’t get me very far since the first outlet is appears to be affected.
I am thinking the next step is to swap the breaker out with a known good one to see if it behaves the same. I have never changed a breaker or opened up a panel before so I am a little hesitant to do so. If I go this route I may end up calling an electrician because I don’t want to get fried because I touched something I shouldn’t. Do you guys have any thoughts on what could have caused the circuit to start acting up all of the sudden?